Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 was crap, shit, a big dog's poo and there I was, standing right in the middle of it--in bare feet. My shifty sideshow freak of a muse had gone off with the circus clowns and was enjoying wild, kinky sex backstage, leaving me to stand in my crap alone.

So come New Year's, I'm going to have a bonfire and burn the ghosts and demons of this past year, then bury those ashes well and good. Maybe they'll rise from the grave in true zombie fashion but if they do, I'll be ready for them cos none of that shite is coming back this new year.

Sure, it might very well be the end of the world in 2012 but it's going to be a fun ride towards the end as far as I'm concerned. I have plans, great big, no-poo-on-my-shoe plans--and I'll be hunting down my muse and dragging him off the circus freaks and hauling him back into my dark domain--he'd best pull up his pants too, cos there is writing to do.

I said 2011 was a bad year and it was, at work, at home, and in my writing. It sucked. But there were some good things to come from '11; my mate Rosscoe got married, I made my first pro short story sale, Tanya and I got a dog, I took on the Executive Editor role at Midnight Echo magazine, and (finally!) semi-began my new career as a consultant.

Other than that pro-sale (which was fucking awesome), my writing career pretty much stagnated; I wrote two short stories over the course of the year and both remain unpublished (one was rejected with the words '...while this was a strong story, one I really enjoyed, it doesn't quite fit the direction the anthology is going...' and that's a very sucky rejection...). I subbed novel number 1 to the agent fella and he said that he loves my writing but the novel was too slow paced for this day and age. He did, however, ask me to send him my next novel--but I didn't end up finishing the final edits on that novel.

I told you, this year sucked. It's like the engine just wouldn't tick over, and every time it did and I'd find first, a little old nun would tumble out onto the road in front of me and I'd have to wait for her to finish crossing. By the time she was across, the engine had died again...

Now I'm not sure about making New Year's resolutions as I don't think they last much past the first hangover of the year, but I've made some resolutions regardless and they are:
1. Finish novel number 2 and get it to my awesome editor in California, and then to the agent fella in London. Deadline is ASAFP (February at the latest)
2. Review novel number 1 and sharpen it up in line with the agent fella's and my HWA-mentor's comments. Deadline is 2 months from starting on it.
3. Write 3 short stories and submit them to pro-markets.
4. Sort out my website and blog. Deadline is NOW!
5. Learn about self-publishing and sit down with a very stiff scotch and seriously consider going this route--perhaps whilst chasing down agents.

I think the writing industry will see some big changes in 2012 and we're smack in the middle of it all. It's exciting.

Some other possibilities for 2012:
1. Take a course in publishing/editing
2. Take a course in marketing
3. Learn how to use InDesign
4. Pick up my pencil and paintbrush and get back into my art

All through it all, I intend to feed my muse so his appetite is sated and he has no need for those other sideshow freaks and he can focus his interests on me, instead. Him and I, we have business to attend to, this new coming year...